Temple Attack Shows Jihadis Aren’t the Only Terrorists

By SPENCER ACKERMAN

The FBI is treating Sunday’s attack on a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, as a “possible act of domestic terrorism” — raising the possibility that the face of domestic terrorism in the United States looks different than the homegrown jihadism many have forecasted.

At a press conference in Wisconsin, FBI agents investigating the shooting said the rampage had killed at least six and wounded a police officer, and that the shooter was a 40-year old former soldier named Wade Michael Page. FBI special agent-in-charge Teresa Carlson told reporters that Page’s motives “are still being assessed,” but Page appears to have acted alone, killing his victims with a legally purchased 9-millimeter handgun. Carlson called the ongoing investigation a “big undertaking” for the bureau.

Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards disclosed that Page had critically shot “eight or nine times” a 51-year old police officer, Lt. Brian Murphy, a 20-year veteran who was first onto the scene. Page himself was shot by officers relieving Murphy — who told his colleagues to continue into the temple to help victims rather than assist him. Representatives from 28 federal, state and domestic agencies came on the scene, with air support and SWAT teams, and conducted a search of 200 residences in the area to ensure there were no additional attacks. Carlson disclosed that the FBI is looking to interview an unnamed “person of interest” who showed up at the temple during the shooting, drawing suspicion from onlookers.

According to information released by U.S. Army spokesman George Wright, Page was an enlisted man who left the Army in 1998 after five and a half years of service, meaning he was never a combat veteran. A psychological operations specialist, Page served at Fort Bliss and Fort Bragg, and earned several awards and decorations, including the Army Commendation Medal and the Humanitarian Service Medal. Edwards said Page was honorably discharged, but all Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Lisa Garcia would say was that Page was “administratively discharged.” According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which analyzes hate groups, Page was in a white-power band called End Apathy, but Carlson did not corroborate that claim.

The fact that a white non-Muslim man pulled off a prospective act of terrorism is a reminder that terrorism is not limited to any race, color, religion or creed. Counterterrorism experts have long warned against racial, ethnic or religious profiling, since terror organizations recruit from non-Arab communities (British-Jamaican would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid; Nigerian would-be underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab); and because terrorists can be non-Muslims who have not attracted the suspicions of law enforcement. Carlson said that Page had “contact with law enforcement in the past” but not enough to warrant an investigation.

The common denominator running through all these cases is that domestic terrorism doesn’t look like the experts predicted. While the FBI claims to have broken up several domestic terrorist attempts, Hasan stands alone as a successful domestic jihadi. Studies suggest that homegrown American jihadis are typically less competent than those who train overseas. Counterterrorism officials fear that the future of terrorism inside the United States will come from a so-called “lone wolf”: someone unconnected to known terrorist groups, acting on his own — and very hard for intelligence or law enforcement officials to spot.

That would appear to be borne out by Page’s attack. Except that there is a massive government surveillance apparatus that seeks to spot signs of al-Qaida’s advance into the United States. But it may not be focusing on the right threat.